LinkedIn Unveils the Skills That Can Get You Hired in 2017 and Makes It Easy to Learn Them

Published on October 20, 2016

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 20, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE:LNKD), the world’s largest professional network on the Internet, today unveiled the Top Skills of 2016 — the skills that are most sought after among global employers, and employers in the U.S. and 14 other countries. Cloud and Distributed Computing topped the U.S. list for the second year in a row.

The U.S. Top Skills of 2016 are:

Cloud and Distributed Computing

Statistical Analysis and Data Mining

Mobile Development

Storage Systems and Management

User Interface Design

Network and Information Security

Middleware and Integration Software

Web Architecture and Development Framework

Algorithm Design

Java Development

The annual list is developed by analyzing all of the recruiting activity on LinkedIn since January, and uncovers several trends about the U.S. job market. Demand remains high for tech skills like Cloud Distributed Computing (No. 1), and Statistical Analysis and Data Mining (No. 2). That’s due to the fact that tech skills are no longer relegated to the tech industry; they’re needed in nearly every industry and region in the country. Additionally, user interface design has slowly but surely climbed the U.S. Top Skills of 2016 list — It didn’t make 2014’s list, came in at No. 7 last year, and jumped two spaces to No. 5 this year. Demand for people with user interface design skills is growing because products are increasingly data-driven, and employers need employees who can make it easy for customers to interact with their products.

“While we see job applications spike on LinkedIn in October, we know companies aren’t actually hiring at the same rate until January,” says LinkedIn Career Expert Catherine Fisher. “While some skills expire every couple of years, our data strongly suggests that tech skills will still be needed for years to come, in every industry. Now is a great time for professionals to acquire the skills they need to be more marketable.”

To help job seekers gain the skills needed to secure the jobs they want, LinkedIn is holding the Week of Learning from October 24-30, and offering more than 5,000 courses — including courses that teach the Top Skills of 2016 — free to professionals. Professionals can visit the Week of Learning for more information.

LinkedIn LinkedIn connects the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful and transforms the way companies hire, market, and sell. Our vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce through the ongoing development of the world’s first Economic Graph. LinkedIn has more than 450 million members and has offices around the world.

MethodologyThere are thousands of skills that members can add to their profiles, so we grouped these skills into several dozen categories. For example, skills like “Android” and “iOS” would fit into the “Mobile Development” category. Then we looked at all of the hiring and recruiting activity that happened on LinkedIn between Jan. 1 and Sept. 1, equaling billions of data points, and identified the skill categories that belonged to members who were more likely to start new jobs and receive interest from recruiters. Skill categories that did not meet a specific threshold for membership were excluded from our analysis.